“I believe the only remedy for now is to go back to the previous set up,” Negros Occidental Vice Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson said yesterday.

Lacson was reacting to the Department of Budget and Management’s disallowance of the Negros Occidental provincial government 2018 allocation of P504,457,935 that was in excess of its Personal Services (PS) cap.

This means the newly created Provincial Human Resource Management Department will have to be reverted back to a division, and the Organic Farming Division dissolved, Provincial Budget Officer Jose Percival Salado Jr. said Sunday.

A Local Finance Committee resolution recommending these will be submitted to Gov. Alfredo Marañon for appropriate action, Salado said.

“We will just follow the recommendation of DBM and when the revenues of the province improve it the future, a human resource department can again be created,” Lacson said.

Meanwhile, employees affected can go back to their old assignments, he said.

Lacson said he understands Human Resource Management Department head Anabelle Palic will file an appeal to the DBM resolution.

Provincial Administrator Lucille Gelvolea said they are working on a win-win solution to the matter.

Palic said she will leave the matter to the SP to decide, but said the DBM cannot encroach on the independence ofthe local government unit.*